Perennial Crops for Food Security

the objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the essential issues for consideration in developing perennial crops. it is not intended to be a comprehensive review, rather it seeks to highlight topics that must be addressed in order to secure a strong future for perennial crops. to do so, the paper addresses a series of questions: Why do we need to develop perennial crops. What are the challenges and opportunities they provide. how do perceptions differ in the priority to develop perennial crops. What can be done to address and change these perceptions. how advanced is development of perennial crops. two cases are then examined: perennial wheat in Australia as a case study for a developed country, and perennial rice in Asia as a case study for a developing country. Policy implications which may arise from development of perennial crops in developed and developing countries are then considered. the paper concludes by recognizing perennial crops may serve different purposes in different situations, so their roles must be carefully articulated. the issues raised are intended to be positive, meaning the perennial crops G E N E T I C S A N D B R E E D I N G : S TAT E O F T H E A R T , G A P S A N D O P P O R T u N I T I E S 6 P e r e n n i a l C r o P s f o r f o o d s e C u r i t y P r o c e e d i n g s o f t h e f A o e x P e r t W o r k s h o P